Rangel Hits the Streets, Finding Love and Aversion

Representative Charles B. Rangel is not taking his re-election for granted. “I need your help this time,” he tells individual voters.Credit
Michael Nagle for The New York Times

A 20-something office worker whipped out his iPhone and asked to be photographed with him. “Charlie Rangel!” he said, star-struck.

An older man jabbed his finger at the Harlem lawmaker and tore into him. “You’re a crook!” he thundered. “I don’t know how you get away with it.”

A middle-aged woman offered a hug and a kiss. “I love you,” she said, then let loose a crude obscenity for his foes.

For decades, Representative Charles B. Rangel has campaigned as the all but bulletproof incumbent that he was: without urgency or worry, occasionally shaking hands at supermarkets and subway stops, but mostly on behalf of his lesser-known colleagues.

This year, everything is different: under fire for a variety of accusations of ethics violations, Mr. Rangel is trying to fend off five challengers in next Tuesday’s Democratic primary. The president has urged him to step aside. And even some fellow lawmakers in New York have distanced themselves from him, skipping his 80th birthday party.

So on Tuesday morning, Mr. Rangel found himself in the unusual and humbling position of wooing a parade of morning commuters on the Upper West Side, not for an endangered fellow Democrat, but for himself.

“I need your help this time,” he said in his signature gravely voice, extending his hand to passers-by.

For over 90 minutes, at a subway stop at 110th Street and Broadway, his long and deeply personal relationship with his district was on vivid display, as constituents expressed awe, excitement, anger and disappointment toward the 20-term congressman.

Old women greeted him with the intimacy of family. “How are you, Charlie,” one cooed. A husband and wife introduced themselves as “longtime supporters.”

“We just love you,” the wife said.

Joanne Fiore, headed to work with a friend, said, “You are bigger than life.”

But several people acknowledged afterward that their confidence in Mr. Rangel had flagged, and that their words of encouragement would not necessarily translate into a vote for him.

Many walked right by him, some averting their eyes, others waving him off.

A few made it clear just how unhappy they have become with him. Ali Mirza, who once worked for Mr. Rangel as a page in the United States Capitol, was especially blunt. “I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in you,” he told Mr. Rangel, who was left momentarily speechless.

The congressman, who is renowned for his feisty, sarcastic style, at times sparred with his detractors on Tuesday. “You should resign with grace,” a middle-aged woman told him as she headed into the subway.

“Who’s Grace?” he shot back.

While he relishes the verbal jousting, Mr. Rangel said he understood the anger. But he insisted that it was as much about the brutal economy and an anti-incumbent mood as about his personal foibles.

“It’s a rough time out there,” he said. “I’d be heckling, too.”

He added, with a hint of resignation: “Voters don’t have to be right. It’s a two-year term. They can just be frustrated.”

The location of the campaign stop, on the border of the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights, was deliberate, and telling: To hold his seat, Mr. Rangel will need to persuade the neighborhood’s progressive, well-educated and exacting voters that he remains a credible voice in Washington, despite a drumbeat of allegations. “It’s very active politically,” he said of the area. “You have to work it hard.”

The congressman, wearing a dark brown suit with a bright orange tie, arrived with a small entourage of campaign staff members, who handed out glossy fliers bearing his photograph. “Charlie Rangel has been there for all of us,” they read. “Now we need to be there for Charlie Rangel.”

Advisers said that although Mr. Rangel did not take much pleasure in retail politics this year, he was slowly warming to it. He has been heartened by those, like Esther Blue, a technology specialist, who colorfully cursed his critics at the subway stop.

That sentiment, the congressman said, was common on the campaign trail, fueled by what he called a growing sense that he was treated unfairly. “There is a lot of fighting back,” he said. “You can feel that. That’s what causes that type of outburst.”

There were lighter moments on Tuesday, as Mr. Rangel turned his running commentary to the topic of commuters’ clothing. “You look great for Miami,” he yelled to an older woman wearing a bright red, yellow and orange-patterned jacket. She grimaced and ducked into a subway stairwell.

Some of his observations were appreciated. “Beautiful flowers,” he told a woman carrying a bouquet of yellow roses, who smiled at him.

Others were not. “Ni hao,” he called to a Chinese woman, who evidently spoke perfect English, and shook her head in response.

As he has in the past, Mr. Rangel deflected talk of his troubles with a dose of humor. At one point a man offered to make him a suit. “I referred him to the ethics committee,” Mr. Rangel said, smiling mischievously.

After an hour of the hand-shaking, an aide asked if he was ready to leave. “No, let’s keep going,” he said, clasping his hands.

As he turned back to the subway entrance, a middle-aged woman paused in front of Mr. Rangel and pulled him in close. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “God is with you.”

A version of this article appears in print on September 8, 2010, on page A22 of the New York edition with the headline: Rangel Hits the Streets for Votes, Finding Love but Also Aversion. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe